Entertainment
Television

AMC's 'Turn' a different kind of spy drama

From an entertainment standpoint, Americans don't tend to like the American Revolution.

I'm generalizing, of course. But Americans identify more with other wars.

Yet the American Revolution is full of great, complex stories, and some of those are told in the engaging drama Turn, which debuts Sunday, April 6 on AMC.

Based on the book Washington's Spies by historian Alexander Rose, Turn focuses on a fledgling espionage system among committed and conflicted colonials as the American Revolution begins to wreak havoc in the so-called new world.

The key to Turn's success is, will Americans come to see themselves and their roots in this?

“I think that's a great question,” said executive producer and showrunner Craig Silverstein. “There's a ton of World War II, there's a ton of Civil War movies, and really only five or six things you can count that were set in the Revolutionary War.

“My theory, which started after I read Alex's book, is that they (American viewers) have never seen the true story. It's really only taught, my memory is, kind of sixth grade, a very black-and-white, red-versus-blue, David-and-Goliath tale. And the truth is that the truth is much more complicated.

“There's a real seamy underbelly to the (Revolutionary) War. It wasn't just an invasion against scrappy guerrillas. It was neighbour versus neighbour, families split right down the middle.”

Silverstein observed that in U.S. political debates today, people often invoke the supposed wisdom and righteousness of the “founding fathers,” and the vibe is that things were so pure then and they're so complicated now.

Jamie Bell, Heather Lind and Samuel Roukin provide the core of a vast ensemble cast in Turn. There are some familiar names from history among the characters, and one in particular with a strong Canadian connection caught my attention. The name may or may not mean anything to you, but it case it does, I won't spoil the surprise.

Ironically, Bell – who plays Abraham Woodhull, an American trying to stay neutral before slowly being drawn into the rebel cause – is from Britain. You may remember him for his lead role as a young teen in the 2000 movie Billy Elliot. So what did Bell learn in school about the American Revolution?

“They taught us that we lost,” said Bell, prompting laughter. “I really knew very little about this period, about British rule in the colonies and what that was like for the colonists.

“But the thing about this show is these colonists were kind of fighting a big brother. It wasn't like one force against another. They were all kind of the same thing. It was more of a sibling rivalry, trying to gain independence from their bigger brother. No one's obviously speaking with American accents – America, as an idea, wasn't really even established yet.”

The United States is established now, and the era depicted in Turn is what established it. With the separation of almost 250 years, though, it's just a fine yarn, both red and blue.